Metroidvanias can be a dime a dozen in the gaming world. Similar to roguelikes, they’re a popular genre amongst indie developers. When looking at these types of games, there needs to be a creative “hook” or new spin in setting or design that grabs your attention and shows you, “Hey, this is something worth checking out!” BioGun manages to do this right at the forefront with a game completely played from inside of your best friend. You explore the many body organs as a gun-wielding vaccine injected into your dog to fight the catastrophic “dooper” virus that has duped scientists around the globe as it wreaks havoc on pets. Along the way you’ll meet up and be helped (or hunted) by a vast array of cute, cool, and corrupted characters, most of which have an anthro spin on them, if they’re not viruses or enemies plaguing your dog. All of this in pursuit of eradicating the Dooper virus once and for all.
The gameplay consists of exploring the various organs and systems within your dog’s body (which you get to name, by the way) and using your gun to take out obstacles and reveal secrets and upgrades along the way. Your movement is controlled with the left stick and shooting with the right, which allows for some satisfying platforming segments during boss battles, of which there are quite a lot. I liked how I didn’t always know when I was about to come up on one, and it sorta hurled me into the fight. Yes, this had me getting picked off out of nowhere sometimes, but there are enough save points around to make this less frustrating, and it actually gives you a boost of power when you go back to where you last perished, encouraging you to give that challenge a redo asap.
The upgrades for your guns or abilities you find along the way are acquired by doing quests or vanquishing said bosses, and the new perks you gain are creatively awarded to allow you to exit or proceed in the area right after you get them. It felt energizing to get a new skill like double jump, or swimming in gunk freely, and then realizing all the new areas that could be explored. With all these abilities and upgrades, it did feel like the world slowly became your oyster. However, as you explored and picked up more and more quests, it became even more complicated to keep up with them all. Quests referenced characters and places I had met in the past, including directionals like Easy, West, etc. and did not notate characters’ names on the map. This made it a bit difficult to have focused backtracking to do specific things, and I often found myself just trying to look for new areas and “injection zones” so that I could teleport around the map and find out what I needed to do.
Inside of your sickened companion you’ll find a wild array of biological wonders and areas that spew out with colors and effects, and I never knew what I would find in each new body system I was about to enter. It helps that the friendly NPC characters you interact with are all dogs, cool robot anthros, and various other hand-drawn helpers. The writing is also quirky and the voice acting that is included is not distracting and adds a touch of character to the game. You can tell there’s a lot of dedication and creative love put into this one, and it bleeds throughout every part of the game. This includes the soundtrack, which is weaved skillfully throughout and isn’t too overbearing. It gets you in the sci-fi, chemistry-filled headspace the game wants you to play in and keeps things moving. The sound effects and visuals also aim to assist in boss fights and levels, giving signals and clues as to what attacks are about to come, or where you should direct attention next. BioGun promoted exploring, shooting at things, and taking a good look around before proceeding. Sometimes, you couldn’t proceed at all without finding one small opening or a secret tunnel!
Overall, BioGun held my attention and made me want to explore more of the world it created inside my doggo. It wasn’t doing anything too revolutionary in its gameplay and level design, but it was a visual treat with a unique setting for a metroidvania. I look forward to wiping the Dooper virus off the map soon!
